Florida Woman Lucky to be Alive After Aggressive Black Bear Attack

A Florida woman is resting comfortably at home after being attacked by a large black bear who strolled into her open garage and rifled through her garbage cans in search of food, sheriff deputies reported Sunday.

Terri Frana got the shock of a lifetime when she found as many as five bears of “various sizes” pillaging through the trash, Seminole County Sheriff’s Lt. Pete Brenenstuhl said. A black bear “dragged her from inside the garage out into her driveway,” leaving her with scrapes and lacerations to her face, torso and legs, Brenenstuhl said per CNN.

Woman sustains injuries to her head, torso and legs after black bear attacks her at her Florida home.
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The 45-year-old woman was able to successfully break free of the bear and retreat back into her house, where her son, promptly called 911, husband Frank Frana said. She was immediately transported to a local hospital where she received medical treatment for her injuries that included 40 stitches to her head.

“The bear got up on [its] hind legs and started to maul her, opened its jaws and put her head in the mouth and dragged her towards the woods,” Frank Frana said. “Somehow she was able to pull herself out.”

It was initially reported that Frana was attacked by multiple bears, but Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Greg Workman said those reports were inaccurate. “There were several bears observed near the area, but one bear is responsible for her injuries.”

Coincidentally, the attack on Saturday evening occurred on the very day Florida wildlife officials cautioned that black bears and their cubs had emerged from hibernation and were out in full force looking for food, now that winter was over and spring is in the air. Officials encouraged people to invest in bear-resistant trash cans in order to avoid dangerous encounters such as the one that occurred on Saturday night.

“Now is the time to expect bears to show up looking for food,” Dave Telesco, the head of the wildlife commission’s bear management program said in Saturday’s advisory. “If they can’t find food in your neighborhood, they’ll move on.”

According to the Department of Natural Resources, black bear attacks on humans tend to occur mainly when a bear feels her cubs are threatened and are considered highly unusual.

Florida Woman Lucky to be Alive After Aggressive Black Bear Attack